GRDE HV-900 Neckband Headset review
The GRDE HV-900 is a neckband headset that boasts noise reduction, echo cancellation, sweat-proofiedness, an eight hour playtime, and can pair to two phones at the same time for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. It also has the APT-X Bluetooth profile, so there you go.
This was the first neck-based headset I’ve ever played with. I’d assumed that the natural course of headset evolution was going to go more the BlueBuds direction, but it appears that hasn’t been the case on the lower-end market judging by what I’m seeing in the wild.
The first thing I noticed about the headset was that if I turn my head, the wires are too short by about half an inch. I have a huge noggin however so this may not be an issue for those with smaller heads, as the wires wouldn’t travel as far as you turn your head.
The sound reproduction was extremely good on the test songs I use, but I couldn’t get it loud enough to be too loud, which sometimes you want. The earbuds offer a pretty good noise reduction, but overly-loud thumping was inaccessible. Probably a good thing, but I’ll just note it.
There are seven controls on the phone. Two on top of the neckband which are Play/Pause, and Phone. A flippable power switch on the inside. On the sides you have a volume up/down rocker and a track forward/back rocker. There is no way I can tell to tell what is what on the sides when you’re wearing the thing so I found myself turning the volume down when I wanted it up, and skipping tracks in the wrong direction.
I think this is something you’ll learn with use, but it seems so simple to place a feelable bump there I wonder why they didn’t do it.
Jogging around I expected it to be annoying, but it wasn’t. Then again I’m pokey.
When you’re not wearing the earbuds but are transporting the thing, they magnetically attach at the front to keep from flopping around.
Overall, good sound, not terribly loud, good reproduction quality, missed the ball on tactile feedback, priced right. I’d be happy with these.
The GRDE HV-900 Neckband Headset is available from Amazon for $24.99,
